The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-25

| " refresh Your MIND with your evenings
| meannesS Then lie down and wait for the
| coming of the day, and it will come before
| sleep comes, or your sleep will be a worried
| 9uieScence and, if you take the precaution to
lie HAT on your back, frightful nightmare.
| Why not put bound to your animosty?
Why let your foes come into the sanctities of
| your dormitGry? Why let those slanderers
who have already torn your reputation to
! pieces or injured your business, bend over your
midnight pillow and drive from you one of the
| greatest blessings that God can offer-Sweet,
refreshing all invigorating sleep. Why not
| fence out your enemies by the golden bars of
the sunset? Why not stand behind the barri
cade OF evening cloud and say to them:
linus far and no farther" Many
man and many woman is
having the health of body as we'll as the health
| OF soul eaten away by malevolent spirit.
| have in time of religious awakening had per-
sons, night after night, come into the inquiry
room and get no peace of soul. After a while
| / have bluntly asked her: lis there not some
one against whom you have hatred that you
are not willing to give up?' After little
| confusion she has slightly whispered: eyes"
Then [ said to her: you will never find peace
with God as long as you retain that virulence"
a boy in Sparta having stole fox kept him
under his coat, and though the fox was gnaw
| ing his vitals, he submitted to it rather than
| expose his misdeed. Many man with smil-
! ing face has under his jacket an luminosity that
| is gnawlng away the strength of his body and
the integrity of his soul. Better get rid of that
| dreds OF domestic circles where that which
| most is needed is the spirit of forgiveness.
| Brothers apart, and sisters apart, and parents
| and children apart. Solomon says a brother
offended is harder to be won than strong
| city. Are there not enough sacred memories
! of your childhood to bring you together? The
| rabbins recount how that Nebuchadnezzars
son had such spite against his father that
| after he was dead he had his father burned
| to ashes and then put the ashes into four
| sacks and tied them to four eagles
neck which flew away in opposite directions.
| And there are now domestic antipathies that
seem forever to have scattered all parental
| memories to the four winds of heaven. How
far the eagles fly with that sacred ashes! The
| hour of shutdown makes to that family no
| practical suggestion. Thomas Carlyse, in his
biography of Frederic the Great, says the old
| king was told by the confessor he must be at
peace with his enemies if he wanted to enter
| heaven. Then he said to his wife, the queen:
| Write to your brother after am dead that I
forgive him." Roloff, the confessor said:
Her Majesty had better write him imme-
| diately." "No," said the king, latter am
dead; that will be safer" SO he let the sun
OF his earthly existence go down upon his
| wrath.
| Again: We ought not to allow the sun set
before forgiveness takes place, because we
might not live to see another day. And what
| if we should be ushered into the presence of
our Maker with grudge upon our soul?
| The majority of the people depart this life
| III INC night DeCWGell 9leYen o CLOCK p. m.
and three o'clock a. m. there is something in
the atmosphere which rolaxes the grip which
| the body has on the soul and most of people
! enter the next world through the shad-
ows of this world. Perhaps God may
! have arranged it in this way SO as so make
| the contrast the more glorious. I have seen
| sunshiny days in this world that must have
been almost like the radiance of heaven. But
as most people leave the earth between SUM-
down and sunrise, they quit this world at its
| darkest. and heaven wi bn
| the brighter for that contrast. Out of black
ness into irradiation. Shall we then leap over
the roseate bank of sunset into the favorite
| hunting-ground of disease and DEATH carrying
our animosities with us? Who would want to
confront, his God, against whom we
| have all done meaner things than
anybody has ever done against
us, carrying old grudges? How can we expect
His forgiveness for the greater when we are
| not willing to forgive others the less? Napo-
| leon was encouraged to undertake the crossing
| of the Alps because Charlemagne lad pre-
yiously crossed them. And all this rugged
| path OF forgiveness bears the bleeding foot
| steps Of Him who conquered through suffer
| ing, and we ought to be willing to follow. On
the night of our departure from this life into
the next, our one plea will have to be for mer-
cy, and it will have to be offered in the pres
ence of Him who has said: 'If you forgive
not men their trespasses neither will
your heavenly Father forgive your
trespaSses." What sorry plight if we stand
|
wishing this one damage, and wishing some
! one else calamity, and we ourselves needing
| forgiveness for ten thousand times ten thou
sand obliquities of heart and life. When our
| last hour comes, we want it to find us all right
| Hardly anything affects me SO much in the I'M
| covering of ancient Pompeii as the account Of
| the soldier who, after the city had for many
| centuries been covered with the ashes and SEQ
| riae Of Nesuyius, was found standing i'll his
! place on guard, hand on spear and helmet on
! Others He'd SnDmpppp-
ment, but the explorer, seventeen hundred
! years after found the body of that brave fell
low in right position. And it would be a grand
| thing if, when our last moment comes we are
found in right position toward the world, as
| well as in right position toward God, on guard
and unaffrighted by the ashes from the noun
| tain of death. / do not suppose that l am any
more Of coward than most people, but / de-
clare to you that L would not dare to sleep to-
night if there were any being in all the earth
with whom l would not gladly shake hands,
lest. during the night hours, my spirit dis
missed to other realms, should, because of
my uniorgiving spirit, be denied divine for
| gIyenesS.
But" says some woman, "there is horrid
creature that has so injured me that rather
than make up with her | would die first"
! Well sister, you may take your choice for
one or the other it will be-your complete par
don of her or Gods eternal punishment of you.
| But" says some man, 'that fellow vino
| cheated me out of those goods, or damaged my
DNSlltsS CECtlVi OF SGIbcu biihL ITO ABOUT me III
the newspapers, Or by his perfdy broke mp my
domestic happiness, forgive him 1 cannot,
forgive him 1 will not" Well, brother,
take your choice. You will never be
at peace with God till You are at
peace with man. Feeling as you now do, you
would not get so near the harbor of heaven as
to see the light ship. Better leave that man
with the God who said: vengeance is mine,
will repay" You may say, IL will make him
sweat for that yet, viii make him squirn,
mean to pursue him to DEATH" but you are
damaging yourself worse than you damage
linn and you are making heaven for your own
soul an iinpossibility. If he will not be recon
ciied to you be reconciled to him. In five or
| six hours it viii be sundown The dahlias will
bloom against the western sky. Somewhere
| between this and that take shovel and bury
the old quarrel at least six feet deep. "Let
not the sun go down upon your wrath"
But" you say, 81 have more than / can
bear; too much is put upon me and am not
! to blame ii / am somewhat revengeful and un-
relcnting." Then think of the little child at
the moving Of some goods from a store. The
father was putting some rolls Of goods on the
child s arm, package after package, and some
one said; THAT child is being overloaded
and so much ought not to be put upon her."
= I L.